Pournami

Pournami (meaning “Full Moon”) is a 2006 Telugu romantic musical action film directed by Prabhu Deva and written and produced by M. S. Raju under Sumanth Art Productions. Prabhas stars with Trisha in the title role, Charmy, Sindhu Tolani and Rahul Dev, with music by Devi Sri Prasad and cinematography by Venu. Set in the 1960s around a sacred temple dance, it was released in April 2006 (Wikipedia gives 21 April; our record has 20 April) and was a commercial failure, though it won the Nandi Award for Best Art Director.

What the story is about

In a village in Andhra Pradesh, a family carries an old tradition: every twelve years, a daughter of their line performs a ritual dance in the temple for seven days and nights, as an ancestor once did in 1507 to bring rain during a drought. In 1963, as the festival approaches, the chosen dancer, Pournami, vanishes, and the villagers assume she has eloped. Her father refuses to teach her younger sister Chandrakala the dance, because a local zamindar has designs on his daughters. Then a mysterious western-style dance teacher, Siva Kesava, rents rooms in their house and shows the father something that changes his mind. Who Kesava is, and what happened to Pournami, unfold from there.

Cast

• Prabhas as Siva Kesava
• Trisha as Pournami and Charmy as her sister Chandrakala
• Rahul Dev as the zamindar Veerabhadra and Sindhu Tolani as Mallika
• Chandra Mohan as the sisters’ father, Subramanyam
• Mukesh Rishi, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Brahmanandam and Tanikella Bharani in supporting roles

How it was made

The story was inspired by a real incident from four decades earlier that director Sobhan (Varsham) told M. S. Raju. Raju, drawing on period films such as Lagaan and Gadar, wanted to blend Telugu culture and traditions with a commercial format; one flashback was inspired by the Brazilian film Behind the Sun. Script work began in February 2005 and the film was launched on 22 August 2005. Raju acknowledged in an Idlebrain.com interview that casting Prabhas, then known for action roles, in a musical was an experiment. It was Prabhu Deva’s second film as director after Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana. Shooting took about eight months and 180–190 working days, including scenes at the Virupaksha Temple, the elephant stables and a stepwell in Hampi.

Music

Devi Sri Prasad composed the songs and score, with lyrics by Sirivennela Sitaramasastri. “Bharata Vedamuga” is set in the raga Chandrakauns. The audio was released in Hyderabad on 22 March 2006.

Release and reception

Pournami was a commercial failure; News18 lists it among Prabhas’s pre-Baahubali flops. Jeevi of Idlebrain.com (3 out of 5) praised Raju for making a film rooted in classical dance and tradition but felt the climax should have been better and the villain’s thread was left incomplete. Full Hyderabad felt it was not “worth the 3 hours it demands”. Art director Ashok won the Nandi Award for Best Art Director. It was dubbed into Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi.

Where to watch Pournami

We do not have a confirmed streaming platform for Pournami on file. The OTT details on this page will be updated when a platform’s own listing confirms it.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Pournami and the reviews and interviews it cites, linked above; Wikidata; our own cast and crew records.